Blogs
Connectivity Today And My Journey To The Beginning Of The Cobalt Supply Chain
My name is Andrina Beaumond and in early November 2022, I joined the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA) as Senior Stakeholder Engagement and Programme Manager. On my very first day in my new role, I took part in a week-long delegation visit to Kolwezi, in the DR Congo. A week that turned out to be an […]
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Unleashing Potential: How Mining Companies Can Support Decent Work For Youth
This article was co-authored by Ines Kaempfer, CEO at The Centre For Child Rights and Business & David Sturmes, Corporate Engagement and Strategic Partnerships, Fair Cobalt Alliance. Across the country, the Kolwezi area in Lualaba Province is known as a boom town, with swaths of people finding employment in both the industrial and artisanal mining […]
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FCA Quarterly Update – Q3 2022
In August, the FCA clocked its second year in operation. With the support of our partners, we made considerable progress in the 3rd quarter in our efforts to support the transformation of the artisanal cobalt sector in the DRC. We are proud of our achievements and excited and ready for what’s ahead of us. We […]
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Developments in Supply Chain Traceability
This is a guest blog authored by Craig Woodburn, the head of ESG at Britishvolt, the UK’s foremost investor in battery cell technology and associated research and development. In this piece, Craig reflects on how far responsible sourcing of battery materials has come since the transition to a green economy started, the significance of the […]
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FCA Quarterly Update – Q2 2022
In the second quarter of 2022, the FCA has made considerable progress in its efforts to support the transformation of the artisanal cobalt sector in the DRC. After a thorough recruitment process, we are excited to welcome to our team Alex Deprez, the new Country Director for the FCA. Leveraging more than two decades of […]
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Rinse, wash, repeat – developing replicable solutions to make washing artisanal cobalt safe and fair
The FCA is determined to support the adoption of better health and safety practices in artisanal cobalt mine sites. Starting April this year, the washerwomen at the Kamilombe mine site, a partner mine of the FCA run by the cooperative CMDS, the women have been able to gain access to wader boots on a daily-hire […]
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ASM for the prospect of better lives for themselves and their families.
Reflections by Hugh Brown on ASM around the world Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is not limited to the cobalt sector. Worldwide millions of men and women rely on ASM for their livelihood. Few people, if any, have visited a greater range and number of artisanal mine sites around the world than Hugh Brown – […]
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FCA Quarterly Update – Q1 2022
With this blog, we’d like to reflect on the progress our team has made during the first quarter of 2022. Before we go into this, however, we would like to first remember the death of 6 workers at the Kamilombe mine in late January on which we previously reflected in a blog following these tragic […]
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